


We Are But Haunted Houses

by BiconicAce



Series: Nightmare Scenarios (and the stories they preceed) [1]
Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Additional Warnings Apply, All from a side character, Forgive Me, Gen, Homophobia, Not Supported, Sammy's parents are supremely shitty, conversion therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-07-29 14:25:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16266062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BiconicAce/pseuds/BiconicAce
Summary: “Samuel.”The ice that shot through his veins at the sound of his mother’s voice was incomparable to any other feeling he had ever been subjected to. It was akin to being in a content warm summer’s day, secure in the pleasant time you were having, only to have an icy cold deluge fall from the sky out of nowhere, but also worse in all the most terrible ways. It was the crashing of safety into the sudden, overwhelming insecurity of hanging by the thread of his worst critic’s opinion.





	1. Chapter 1

"You can sell me on a lot of things in this town, Ben, but there is absolutely no way Kingsie gave anyone other than Ron Begley piggyback rides."

The wind came out of Ben's sails at once, confirming what Sammy already knew to be a load of horse shit. It was like Ben didn't realize Sammy knew all of his tells. Not that they were hard, Ben had a very expressive face. It went very well with his medium rage and exuberant everything else.

"I don't get how you always know! You never call weird things out as straight lies unless they are. Are you psychic? Is that how you always know what I'm making up?"   
Really, the glare Ben was aiming at him was adorable. The kid had no clue how obvious he was.

"Oh Ben, no one has to be a psychic to know when you're lying. You're literally just that bad at it." 

Ben's indignant huff only spurred Sammy's further on.

"I'm serious, have you heard yourself try to lie? It's painfully obvious."

Ben sputtered for a moment in indignation before apparently getting an idea on how to fight back from what he doubtlessly considered slander, because Ben was dramatic like that, and declared.

"You know what? Let's open the phone lines! They'll defend my honor."

Sammy's shit-eating grin only widened. Poor Ben was not gonna get the response he thought he would. He was glad though, that they could get back to this banter now that the station had reopened. 

“Something tells me this isn’t gonna go your way but, you know what? We’ve got time before Ron calls in about the Bareback Bear competition, so let’s give it a shot. Call 424-279-3858 or tweet @KingFallsSammy and @KingFallsAM to tell us all about what a terrible liar Ben is.”

Ben’s chime in of “I wonder how Ron keeps the bears from mauling people?” only served to send Sammy into a fit of giggles. For all the kid had grown in the years he’d known him, he was still hilariously naive in certain, very specific instances. 

Trying to quell his laughter, he picked Lucky Line 1 to make sure they kept moving only to be met with the absolute last voice he ever wanted to hear.

“Samuel.”

The ice that shot through his veins at the sound of his mother’s voice was incomparable to any other feeling he had ever been subjected to. It was akin to being in a content warm summer’s day, secure in the pleasant time you were having, only to have an icy cold deluge fall from the sky out of nowhere, but also worse in all the most terrible ways. It was the crashing of safety into the sudden, overwhelming insecurity of hanging by the thread of his worst critic’s opinion.

He debated dumping her without a word, but the moment it had taken to overcome the wave of panic had been just long enough for Ben to engage with her.

“Uh, I’m sorry ma'am, but it’s Sammy. He doesn’t really like to be called anything else. I don’t think I recognize your voice, though. Are you new in town?”

The very concept of his parents existing in the same town as him felt like a waking nightmare in and of itself. There were very good reasons Sammy Stevens had cut off contact with his family and made himself as unreachable to them as possible. 

His mother stopped to think about what she wanted to say, for a moment. 

“No. I just needed to talk to Samuel and this is apparently the only way I can contact him anymore.”

Ben Arnold, god bless him, picked up on the tone immediately. His hand inching towards the dump button in Sammy’s peripheral vision. But Sammy himself would have to speak eventually. Between his mother’s…. personality and Ben’s overprotectiveness, this would go bad fast unless he stepped in and faced his mother off the air. Which he desperately did not want to do, but if he wanted to prevent Ben from finding out exactly how Sammy grew up then he would have to. Playing mediator so Ben didn’t get into literal altercations was a deep-seated part of the life of Sammy Stevens. Not that Ben didn't have to do the same on some occasions. Maybe he could pretend this was just another instance of that. A flash of Ben screaming in his mind’s eye finally prompted Sammy to interject. 

“Mother,” the echo of the word from Ben was so incredulous that it almost amused Sammy, “Why don’t we take this off the air. Wouldn’t want to spread personal business in public.”

There, that would get his mother off the line, she was a stickler for keeping up appearances. Wouldn’t want to be more embarrassed by him in front of the neighborhood than she already was at all times. 

“It’s a little too late for that now isn’t it Samuel?”

Oh hell.

“Honestly, if you’re going to insist on your hedonistic ways, you could at least not broadcast it for the entire world to know. You’re already an embarrassment to your father and I. The least you could do is not be a public embarrassment. And to think we wasted all that money on those nice conversion camps every summer for you to go telling the world what an abomination you are.”

Fuck. Shit. God dammit. 

It was the same rhetoric he’d heard all his life while growing up, day in and day out from his family, except now it was in front of his best friend and the entire town he’d come to think of as home. He’d made it his mission in life at one time to get away from this and here it was, chasing him down to kick him right back into the dirt. He’s found a new family that he was finally starting to believe actually loved him as is instead of needing him to change some of the most fundamental parts of himself in order to be so much as acknowledged. 

Even now the shame his mother had put so much effort into implanting in his personhood was bubbling, overflowing and dragging him down, down, down into choking darkness. He could hear phanyom shouts in his ears as he took careful breaths to try and curtail the feelings. 

“Excuse me?”

Benjamin Arnold, hero extraordinaire to the rescue.

“Oh, sorry honey, I didn’t mean to drag you into our mess but Samuel has to know-”

“Shut up,” Ben snapped. That medium rage coming to the forefront as his face filled with fury, “You don’t get to talk to Sammy like that. Ever. Do us a favor and never call in again because you are not welcome here. Your number will be blocked. Stay away from him.”

Ben slammed the dump button so hard, the table shook beneath it. A snarl still on his lips as he fumed with righteous fury. He glared at the phone for a moment longer before raising his eyes to meet Sammy’s own.

“God, I’m so- I’m so sorry, Sammy. I should have-”

“No,” Sammy would not let Ben blame himself for this, “I can hit the dump button just as well as you and of the two of us, I was the one who knew how…. How she could get.”

Ben’s eyes practically glowed with unspoken emotions. Sammy knew this would haunt his friend for too long. Knew that Ben would try to make up for an incident that was in no way his fault for weeks as Sammy begged him to let it go. He was the one who still only gave pieces of his past in highly sensitized, bite sized portions. He hadn't even mentioned his parents to Ben yet, he couldn't have known that talking to them was like playing with a raging fire.

The hotline ringing interrupted their guilt fight before it could really get going, yet. They'd be revisiting this later, of that there was no doubt.

Sammy had completely forgotten that Ron was going to call in tonight, he did not look forward to knowing how much of that the other man had heard.

“Ben. Sammy. It’s, well, I'm- I'm real sorry that happened on the air. If anyone in this town deserved more privacy, it's you and all this shit happening on the air just isn't fair.”

Sammy swallowed, knowing that life was rarely fair especially to himself but one glance at Ben and he knew that he shouldn't say that out loud lest he worry the kid further.

“It's, well, not fine, but it is what it is Ron. I just have to keep moving and hope it doesn't happen again.”

Ben practically launched himself forward to reassure Sammy.

“It won't happen again. I’ll start screening calls again. We won’t take any calls from that area code again just to make sure. I won't let you get ambushed like that again, I swear. And… and if you need someone to listen, I’m here, man. I may not understand but I love you man and you're my best friend.”

Ron's gruff voice didn't give Sammy time to try and mitigate all the emotions before adding on, “Me too, Sammy. You know you can always come down to the bait shop just to talk. I'd be happy to listen and offer any support I can.”

Sammy felt some warmth bloom in his chest. He had friends who were willing to run interference with his own damn parents for him. Friends who heard about them and still wanted to support him. It was reassuring. 

They needed to get this back on track before Sammy said stupid and revealing on air again, or you know  _ cried outright _ , so he tried to divert the conversation.

“Thanks, guys, it's nice to know you guys care. Now before we get any sappier, let's talk about this bareback bear competition shall we?”

Ben nodded reluctantly but lit back up quickly, determination in his gaze. Oh, this was gonna be good.

“Hey! I did want to ask. Ron, how do you keep the bears from mauling people?”

Golden. Sammy couldn't have contained the smirk if he’d actually tried. 

Smugly, Ron just replied, “Oh Ben, the bears only maul you if you’re lucky.”

Sammy proceeded to fall out of his chair laughing at Ben’s baffled face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sammy's backstory revealed. (Or at least the one that developed in my head as I wrote part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll probably come through and clean this up more later, but for now it is what it is.
> 
> NOT BETA READ

Ben waited until they were packing up in the morning to bring it back up.

“I… couldn’t help but notice something that was said. You don’t have to talk about it, but… I’m here if you ever want to. I know I can’t really understand but that won’t ever change that I want to help you in any way I can.”

Sammy stared at his best friend in that moment and knew he meant every word of it. Maybe- Maybe it was time Sammy Stevens started to open up a little. If there was anyone in the world that would be kind about it, it was Ben. So, he took a deep breath and had a little faith in his friend.

“When I was 14 my parents caught me holding hands with a boy. They- Well, they didn’t take it well. That summer they sent me away to a “camp” that would “fix me” and it was…. God Ben, it was terrible. I-”

Sammy’s breath caught as he remembered hot summers of back-breaking work with people screaming and shouting at him about how ashamed he should be. That he was dirty and broken and disgraceful. Remembered coming back to parents who had apparently done their research on how to reinforce those notions. Remembering pamphlets showing up in his room regularly, reminding him that he was an abomination, an embarrassment. The constant talks about how no one could know even when he was supposedly “fixed”.

Ben’s hand on his wrist brought him hurtling back to reality. His friend was tense, shoulders tight and face pinched in concern. Sammy concentrated on the pressure of Ben’s grip on his wrist to ground himself to reality. Kept his eyes on Ben’s face to remain in the present instead of falling back into a past that would always haunt him.

“They sent me back every summer for four years, to ‘make sure it stuck’ and I’ve never hated a place more. I knew that if I didn’t take the first out that I could find, I would be trapped forever. College was that out.”

Ben was gravitating towards him with a fierce protectiveness in his eyes. He would no doubt be extra protective and clingy for a while after this. Not that Sammy would honestly mind much. He'd need a little more assurance immediately after facing his mother.

“I took a shit ton of student loans so I could get out of state. Then I got the hell out of there and never looked back. The freedom was so amazing Ben. Not having to look over my shoulder or dread the summer when I'd be sent away was almost intoxicating. Plus, it turned out there was something even better than getting away too. College was where I met Jack.”

The smile caught even Sammy by surprise, but he could never really be sad about meeting Jack Wright, no matter how he ended up there.

“It took forever for us to start dating. Neither of us was out, so even getting to that point was a miracle in and of itself. I told him then and he was so furious at them for me, it was the first time it occurred to me that maybe I didn’t actually deserve what they had done to me. But when we graduated, those student loans started to hang over my head. I loved the show Lily, Jack, and I did together but it wasn’t something we could support ourselves with.”

He remembered hating himself for it. He'd never wanted to end the amazing opportunity to work together they had all had but, “I had to have a real job, one that could cover those student loans so I wouldn’t have to go back to my parents for help.

“I was getting desperate when Jack suggested moving. Going to a bigger market meant more jobs and more chances to get a job that made enough despite there being more competition. We tried to get Lily to come but she’s always been stubborn and I… I really didn’t have any choice but to try.”

Lily'd been furious. She didn't want to give up and had decided that we were buying into some stupid romantic notion of running away together. Started claiming herself as an afterthought and once Lily made up her mind, nothing could change that. They hadn't had the resources to stick around and convince her. So they'd made the heart-wrenching decision to move sans a third of their trio.

“When we got there, I took the first job that was offered to me that paid enough even though it was a fucking shock jock job. Jack wormed his way into my producer spot and we did our best to stay on the air. It sucked, but we were far from the first people to take a shitty job just to get by.

“The day we finished paying those fucking student loans, we cried. I proposed to him on the spot as soon as I was no longer a liability.”

It'd been at the kitchen table, the last bill sealed with a check, ready to drop off at the mailbox. Jack’s face was blurry in his vision, the tears welling and distorting the most beautiful sight in Sammy's world as he'd wobbly asked Jack to marry him.

Now, he was staring at Ben instead, watching him with beseeching eyes.

"I don't know what I'm doing without him, Ben. Getting away from my parents was the only goal I'd ever had and once that happened, all I wanted was to make Jack as happy as he made me. But I'm just failing everyday that he's stuck in that fucking void and I don't... I don't know what to do."

Ben's face had lit with fire though, a storm of emotions that characterized him to the core. A determination was setting in and Sammy suddenly knew he'd only contributed to Ben's foolhardy attempt to retrieve Jack from the void. It would only get harder from here to curtail his rasher instincts. Later, when emotions had calmed and Sammy didn't feel a word away from shattering.

For now, his best friend held his wrist in a reassuring grip, trying to support Sammy when no words could be found.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Nightmare Scenario #2: Sammy's parents call and it **does not go well**.
> 
> A lot of factors went into the direction this took, it started out as a "Nightmare Scenario" and developed into a full blown Sammy Backstory so look forward to more explanation of that in Part 2.


End file.
